


Their Promises They'd Kept

by The_Peridot_Shade



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Changelings, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Sidhe, Time & Space - Freeform, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 12:31:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15707283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Peridot_Shade/pseuds/The_Peridot_Shade
Summary: Obi-Wan's never felt human, not really.  When all of time and space is at your fingertips, when there are rules you must obey absolutely and others you can break as easily as breathing—well, it's no surprise to discover that you aren't what you thought you were.Or, Obi-Wan is a changeling and this changes everything.(The long-awaited Sidhe!Obi-Wan fic.  Based on @lurkingcrow's post on tumblr, with permission)





	Their Promises They'd Kept

**Author's Note:**

> It is finally complete! Sidhe!Obi-Wan has arrived.  
> Title is from Heather Dale's song Changeling Child.

Obi-Wan can't remember the first time it happened, only the first time he noticed.

He was in class, a history class of some sort, he cannot now recall which of the many.The instructor called on him to answer a question and caught him unawares, absorbed in the shifting veils of many-colored light that drifted across his vision as long as he could remember.

He could not answer, and said so.

The class snickered.The teacher frowned.

"Did you do the reading, Initiate Kenobi?" the instructor inquired, irritated.

 _Yes_ , Obi-Wan meant to say, to lie as he had heard so many others do.

"Not all of it," slipped from his lips instead.The class, looking on, radiated barely-suppressed glee.

"I was ill again," he hastened to add.

The teaching master's eyes softened."Tell me before class, next time.And be sure to catch up on what you missed." 

She moved on with the lesson.

Obi-Wan considered, quietly, the difference between lying and stating two unrelated facts to deceive.

 

(Obi-Wan spoke full sentences early, according to Master Yoda, who had been teaching the younglings a game to aid their fine control of the Force and their own limbs, a game that involved transferring water from one eggshell to another.To this day, the old master will not tell him what he said, only that it was in a dialect not spoken for a thousand years and more.)

 

He has Bad Days sometimes.Days when the world that shifts so easily around him seems Too Solid and he can't slip between the patterns of space and time like he usually does.Days when everything feels wrong, like the feeling of off-ness that precedes a lingering cold, tired and achy and a bit weak.It's not until he's a padawan and Qui-Gon takes him to a planet that eschews technology in favor of their traditional ways that he realizes it's somehow connected to the metal that constantly surrounds him on Coruscant.When they return, the healers test him for an allergy.The results come back negative.So they test for high metal toxicity in his blood stream.Again, it comes back negative.They try over and over to discover the cause.

By the time Obi-Wan is an adult, they're just trying to treat the symptoms.It doesn't help much.

 

(Iron's effect has never been about driving the Other away; rather, it is the only thing with the power to make Them _present_ in the world in a way They were never meant to be.)

 

Obi-Wan has never understood why Qui-Gon insists on 'being present in the moment' and 'mindful of the present'.Qui-Gon seems to think that foreknowledge is something he can just—switch off.It's not that simple. For Obi-Wan, every 'moment' that passes is a shift in the web of possibilities that make up the world, and even the very breath he takes alters the fabric of the universe.One day, he'll tell his padawan that the future is always in motion, and it'll be both absolute truth and an understatement that he'll never be able to top, for all his skill in wordplay.

 

(The future is not the future.It is infinite possibilities, occurring at once, as yet unobserved.In seeing it, one makes it reality.Unless, of course, one does not belong to reality.)

 

Stewjon is matrilineal and practices male-preference primogeniture.Stewjon is matrilineal, but there is no record of a 'Kenobi' line in any of the accessible government archives.Once, when Obi-Wan is fourteen, newly returned from Melida/Daan and utterly uncertain of his place in the world, he slices into the most secure archives of the Stewjoni intelligence service.'Kenobi' isn't mentioned even once.

 

(One of the older Stewjoni Jedi, who was nearer to five standard years when the Jedi took her in, as compared to Obi-Wan's six months, takes him aside one day and teaches him about their culture, tells him never to return to Stewjon unless under an alias.'Kenobi', she says, is never spoken on their homeworld.It is the name of the Shadows and the Air, the name of the Bringer of Nightmares, the Midwife, the Queen of Tricksters, She Who Was Stolen And Became Other.It's just superstition, she assures him, but they take it seriously on Stewjon."Believe it or not," she says, "but respect that others do."She's wearing an iron belt buckle.)

 

"Anakin Skywalker, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"You're a Jedi too?Pleased to meet you!"

Obi-Wan smiles, but says nothing as he shakes the child's hand.This is a child of sand and sun, of absolutes and hardship and the claiming of names as the only thing one _can_ claim.His enemies are blatant in their cruelty, their wealth is decadence without elegance.He has no place in the world of Obi-Wan's ancestors, the in-between places of rivers and hills and mountains that hide danger beneath a façade of beauty.Anakin cannot do anything _but_ proclaim his name for all to hear; Obi-Wan cannot return a name in kind.Perhaps Qui-Gon can teach this boy to survive in a world of glittering glamour covering cruelty, but Obi-Wan fears the boy will always be fooled by the shiny veneer of respectability that defines politics.

 

(Obi-Wan has gained more power in this moment than even he knows.A name and a kindness freely granted—those are potent things indeed.)

 

Qui-Gon doesn't die in every possibility Obi-Wan sees—just most.He knows it's futile, but tries to save his Master anyway.

 

(It doesn't work.It can't work.As soon as the ray shield cycles closed, Qui-Gon's fate is sealed.Obi-Wan is young, and even a being not entirely bound to the fabric of reality must follow _some_ rules—experience being the most universal.)

 

Obi-Wan takes a padawan.In a thousand different possibilities, Anakin Falls.In a thousand more, he dies.In a million, he does both.And in the slimmest of chances, he is happy with a wife and children, in the company of a Master who gave him the tools to see through glamor and charm.Obi-Wan knows exactly what he must do.

 

(Obi-Wan, fundamentally, is a creature of eternal change, paradoxical certainties.He has learned from his failures.He just doesn't always accept the possibility that he might have to do so again.)

 

"Don't you dare lay a hand on it," Obi-Wan tells Anakin, who is eyeing a mouse droid speculatively.He's so proud when he sees it floating along behind his padawan.

 

(He loves teaching in a way he would never have expected.There is, of course, the joy of seeing a student come into their own—but underneath, the dark part of him that enjoys the twisting of truth purrs contentedly at the shaping of another's mind.He is very careful to keep that part of himself in check.)

 

Geonosis is…strange.When Dooku speaks, Obi-Wan knows, logically, it must be lies.Surely one being could not fool so many people.Surely the Senate could not be under the sway of a singular will, no matter how evil.

Yet Dooku's words are not lies.They lack the hint of sulfur, the edge of unease, the breath of honey-sweet poison that normally accompany an untruth.

That does not, however, mean they are _truth_.Obi-Wan knows very well that deception can be accomplished as easily with facts as with misinformation.No, better to remain wary.

 

(The words linger, still, in the back of his mind.It would be equally unwise to dismiss them.A piece of the truth is still a clue, no matter how it was intended to be wielded.)

 

The battle pulls out something in Obi-Wan's soul, something that can never be put back.He has seen death before, held family and friends and colleagues and perfect strangers and even enemies in his arms as they took their final breaths.He has known loss.He has even seen war, fought battles.But not like this.Not to protect _him_.It invokes a fierceness he never knew he possessed, to see Jedi he'd known for years, _decades_ , fall in his defense, to see clones he'd only seen in passing leap unquestioningly in to take their place.Obi-Wan comes away from Geonosis with two cuts from a lightsaber and a feral look in his eyes.His perpetual exhaustion is still there, but somehow—less noticeable.He has a _purpose_ now, and nothing, not even the frailty of his own mortal form will stop him.

 

(Life is precious, except when it's not, when it's _personal_.Other Jedi stare at him uneasily now, when they see him throw himself into the war effort with something like zeal." _Inhuman,_ " they whisper, not knowing how true their words really are.)

 

Obi-Wan knights Anakin with his heart pounding wildly and a bone-deep fatigue.He has spent too long on his flagship, surrounded by the metal that tugs and pulls at his being until he _longs_ for the battlefield as much as he despises it.Anakin's companionship is one of the few things that still bring him joy.

 

(During the Clone Wars, when the name of the Negotiator is on the lips of every reporter in the rest of the galaxy, Stewjoni news outlets bleep out the name of their heroic son.They call him 'Our General', 'The Prince', anything but his name.A Coruscanti reporter once tried to find the name of the Jedi who brought the Negotiator to the Temple.They find nothing, as though Obi-Wan simply appeared in the creche one day with only a name.They never run the story, their station suddenly falling on hard times and having to close down for seemingly unrelated reasons, but Obi-Wan's Mother is great and terrible and has her ways of moving unseen.)

 

The war brings out something in Obi-Wan, something not-quite-dark but deadly, something that has always been there, hidden beneath layers of glamour and charm.A wildness, a ruthlessness, a vindictiveness that can only truly express itself on the battlefield.Mostly, it manifests as merciless tactics, unconventional methods of waging war.But sometimes…oh, sometimes, if droids had blood, he'd be soaked in the life force of his enemies.As it is, the few times they face organic sentients across the battlefield, things tend to get a bit—messy.

 

(One might even, upon seeing the flash of his lightsaber and the half-mad glint in his eyes, call him fey.The first time Obi-Wan overhears one of Wulf Yularen's staff whispering that word in relation to him, he laughs.Laughter is better than the terrible suspicion that they might be _right_ and yet so wrong at the same time.It's ridiculous, to him, how—variable—the truth is.)

 

Words come easily.In another life, Obi-Wan might have borne the name of 'Honey-Speech', but here it is always the Negotiator.He doesn't think he's heard his real name spoken outside the Jedi and his small circle of friends in a very, very long time.It makes the bonds he shares with those who _do_ call him by name so much more potent.

 

(The unspoken truth is this: Obi-Wan is called the Negotiator, not for his words, skilled and cunningly crafted though they are, but because no one understands the shiver that travels down their spine when the name of Kenobi is spoken.)

 

"I'm fine."

Obi-Wan has repeated it so often in his life."I'm fine," he says, arm circling his waist as he balances on his own two feet only out of sheer willpower.It's even true, to an extent; he is…hardier than is to be expected of someone presumably human, and long accustomed to pain.The battle must go on—a little verbal sleight of hand is all that is needed to spur his men onward, and the vagueness of the term allows it to pass his lips.It is more precise that he is as well as he ever is on Geonosis.The planet is…sick, somehow, a parasite lurking in its depths.It is a more natural sensation than Coruscant's miasma of ill will, but still malevolent.He learned long ago never to mention what he senses, beyond a 'bad feeling'.He is weary of being the only voice shouting into the abyss.

 

(Obi-Wan's mother is a Queen, and the embodiment of sovereignty at that.A ruler is tied to the land, and the land to the ruler.It is only natural that his birthright combines with the Force in…interesting ways.)

 

Ahsoka is far more eager to learn from Obi-Wan than he'd anticipated.And she learns well.

He is, therefore, more glad than he should be to see her abandon his teachings when she is framed for the bombings.The truth that pours from her lips and Anakin's is purely the truth, not the truth of convenience.

The Council, on the other hand, would do well to learn from the example of the young woman who just resigned.

 

(Obi-Wan is particularly vicious in his truths from then on out.No more will he twist reality for the comfort of others—only to wound.)

 

Rescuing the Chancellor results in a concussion for Obi-Wan and a kill for Anakin.Obi-Wan is unsurprised.Palpatine wields both truth and lies in a manner that has always left him on the verge on violent illness every time he must spend extensive time in the politician's presence.Most politicians leave Obi-Wan at the very least a little fatigued, but Palpatine, as in everything, drives it to unexpected heights.

 

(When he learns, later, precisely who and _what_ Palpatine is—Obi-Wan will laugh.What else could such a man be?Fortunately, there are ways of dealing with such folk.)

 

Anakin comes to him, trembling, fresh from a nightmare of Padmé's death.Oh, he doesn't say it outright, but Obi-Wan is still the better wordsmith between the two of them.Anakin has never been truly able to hear nuance when distressed, and so is unable to hear the implications in his own words.It is a simple thing to ease his fears—Anakin has always done better when he has something to do, so guiding him to research pre-natal care is an appropriate stop gap measure until Obi-Wan can determine just who has placed a construct _in_ _his brother's mind_.

 

(When he does, there _will be blood_.Obi-Wan is a Jedi, and Jedi do not pursue vengeance, but he is also very much his mother's son.)

 

Obi-Wan walks the webs that night, tracing through reality in a way that only his people can.What he sees, he'll never speak of—but it ignites in him the final spark needed to unleash the full potential of his nature.

The Negotiator smiles with teeth suddenly pointed, and lifts a horn shaped of void and stars to his lips.Possibility and impossibility unite for one brief moment, leaping to his bidding.

 

(Sheev Palpatine is in his office when the horn sounds.When the shadow-beasts pass, and the howling masses led by a man with hair of flame and eyes like the sea depart, the Chancellor's Office is empty.The investigation is never officially closed.On Stewjon, the elderly exchange knowing glances.None escape the Wild Hunt.)


End file.
